The Term "CT"

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

At the risk of setting off all kinds of alarm bells and being accused of 
"bad faith" and other rancorous persuasions, I'll nevertheless pose a 
question.  Many will have speculations, few will have information.  So, 
here goes...

In N&W parlance, thinking and history, what did the letters "CT" (or 
"C.T.") stand for?

An answer can probably be offered by those who have read the annual reports 
of the 1880s and 1890s. (Which I haven't...)

I have found use of that term in the Cumberland Valley RR annual reports 
from the 1870s, where it meant "Chief of Transportion."  Along with the 
Master of Machinery and the King Tut of Track (who's official monkier I 
have forgotten,) the "Chief of Transportation" made a dutiful yearly 
appearance in the annual reports, accounting for his stewardship of his 
department during the previous year.

Given the fact that E. W. Clarke & Co. brought into the N&W mix some people 
of ... er, shall we say "northern extraction"... is it possible that these 
gentlemen brought the "CT" nomenclature along in their carpet bags?  That 
"other" railroad from which some of them came (ya know, that other ray-road 
that used Tuscan Red on its passenger equipment) continued to have an 
officer called the "Chief of Transportation" at least through the early 
1930s, perhaps later.

Do the N&W annual reports shed any light on the use of "C.T." on the old 
Narrow & Weedy RR/Ry (as R.H. Smith was said to have called it) ?  Or is 
the issue lost in the dustbin of history and addressed only by uninformed 
speculation?

Let the dog fighting begin !

-- abramo burnett